Have you ever wanted to start your own construction business? Have you ever wondered how much effort goes into merely picking up heavy supplies and delivering them to a worksite? Do you obey traffic laws in games like Grand Theft Auto and wish there was an incentive to do so? You’re in luck: Construction Simulator 2 has come to Xbox One and PS4 from its original home on mobile, but now it’s been dubbed Construction Simulator 2: US Console Edition!
Console Simulator 2: US Console Edition tasks you with numerous types of jobs a construction professional may take on, like pouring concrete, delivering supplies, and using various types of equipment. Once you’ve got the basics down, you can even put these various skills to good use in bigger projects that combine them like building a fence or even a whole home! After some tutorials you’re given reign over your small kingdom with various projects you can choose from across town. You’ll start small, taking your flatbed truck to pick up supplies and drop them off in the correct location for example. You’ll have up to three jobs to choose from at any given time, and they refresh every ten minutes in real time, but trust me, there’s no way you’d ever properly finish all three jobs in ten minutes so there’s nothing to worry about!
The funny thing about the jobs is that, although they’re repetitive and fairly monotonous, it actually seems very realistic. One of the most basic things you’ll ever do is pick up and move supplies. To do this, you’ll take your awesome flatbed truck to the supply store (or wherever the supplies you’re getting are), drive your vehicle near them, swap to the mini crane in the back, fully extend the first part of the arm with the left joystick, use the right joystick to extend the upper part of the arm as far as you need and then use the two sticks in tandem to line up the hook with proper point on the object and connect it. Then you’ll use both sticks together again to move it to the bed of your truck and let go! Repeat this process as many times as necessary, then reset it so that your truck can be moved one again. Don’t forget to secure everything before you drive off! Then you’ll drive to the worksite, but make sure you obey the speed limit, don’t hit other vehicles, and don’t run red lights since there are traffic cameras throughout town that will fine you if you break laws. Eventually you’ll get there, and then you need to swap back to the mini crane, extend the first part of the arm, then the second part of the arm, use both to pick up each item individually off the back of your truck and then put each item in the proper place. At first this is annoying and even painful; I wondered why anyone would want to make a game out of what’s essentially just a fancy version of an arcade crane game that you can actually win. But then, somehow, it became a bit addictive and relaxing. I wasn’t just moving random junk around for no reason, I was getting paid to do it for a client AND that money would help me expand my business!
That moment of clarity came after a lot of frustration, sadly. The tutorials are a bit complicated, and even now after hours of playing I wouldn’t be able to tell you where the heck the concrete is supposed to be dumped in the crane tutorial. In fact, everything about the game is confusing until you just dive in and get your hands dirty for a while: I ended up wondering why certain contracts were warning me not to do them because I didn’t have certain things, I had major trouble finding the vehicle shop (a requirement for many jobs; you have three vehicles to begin with but others, like a vehicle that lets you haul dirt and gravel, are required for many tasks), and the controls seemed like a nightmare at first. But seriously, if you just dive in, mess with stuff, and play around you’ll catch on pretty quick. I actually had to remind myself a few times that if I bumped into a home or dropped something incorrectly I wouldn’t terribly wreck anything in real life. Even something as simple as changing camera angles seemed almost impossible at first, but once I messed around enough it morphed into a creative, unique system that’s pretty easy to adjust whenever necessary! And I liked that even the most ambitious projects are broken up into individual steps. Building a fence, for example, starts off by getting the hole dug, and then concrete poured, and then bringing supplies over. Each of these steps rewards you with experience and/or money, and it’s nice to feel rewarded for completing each part. It’s cool seeing how each of these individual steps comes together to complete a big task!
I’ve always loved light sim games. Games like Stardew Valley and The Sims are a blast to play, and silly job games like Overcooked are automatic preorder games for me. Construction Simulator 2: US Console Edition was my first foray into a more serious sim game, and perhaps that’s why it took me so long to wrap my brain around it. But as serious as it is, it ended up being a lot more welcoming than I would’ve expected in the long run, and it’s a game I can see myself starting up when I need to relax a bit and unwind since each phase of a project is broken up so small. Just keep in mind that this isn’t the game for those looking to manage a bunch of construction employees, it’s for those who want to get their hands (virtually) dirty themselves.
And hey, kudos for some funny moments in the game, even if half of the dialog is a bit dry. Taking a truck to a gas station for a burrito and the jokes about how much it smells were awesome.
Construction Simulator 2: US Console Edition is available on Xbox One and PS4.
I received a free copy of this game in exchange for an honest review.